(I posted this before — but since accident happend — I repost it in the context !

(I posted this before — but since accident happend — I repost it in the context !)

Why I don’t do Creative Commons licensing

I work in quantitative finance and photography is just hobby for me. I’m actually hearing words «self-taught» and «hobbyist» all the time on the network as if it something truly outstanding — well, I’m actually the same — with the difference I don’t make big deal out of it. Yes, I did not finish Oxford Photo-Conservatory and I still can make images which are quite competitive by the modern pro wildlife photography standards.

Even if it’s all hobby in the end — I don’t do Creative Commons.

I do make good money with my photos, still marginal to my main income but quite ok in absolute numbers. But this is not main reason. True reasons are completely different.

Type of photography I’m doing is very time and skill demanding — you travel to exotic places, you wait for right conditions for long time, you spend time in element which requires very expensive equipment and consequent maintenance — all these things — blah-blah. But most important factor of course is people as usual.

I can do all these things underwater because I’m standing on the shoulders of giants — great wildlife photographers whom inspired me, taught me and guided me to there I’m am today. Many of them are my friends, many of them are people I look at with great admiration.

For these guys it’s important to license their images in traditional way to make living. Same as for many other photographer specialties, like photo-journalists, for instance. It’s just way it is.

If I will want to chase popularity on the «I want to see my images everywhere» basis by releasing high-res originals to the public — with many of them ending up in print — I will feel pretty bad screwing up a lot of good people and diluting value of service. I believe that money photographers are making on average are already very small to take even more out of it.

I want to be «competitive» on other hand, but I want to be respectful and grateful to pro photography community too — all I learned I learned from them, and my edge in internet world is not something I’m really proud of in this case.

If I can’t articulate model how everyone can make living with CC comparable to the current levels — I can’t make any suggestions about transition neither.

I’m not saying that idea of Creative Commons is bad — it’s just in present form very detached from reality and way real photographers are making living. Maybe in future it all will be free and people will make money based on Shareware-alike paradigm or something similar. But not soon. And many concepts will change many times before that.

It’s very funny for me to see some people on G+ talking CC and not-watermarking subjects — without actually possessing anything unique and interesting in their portfolios. As I said many times — real world of photography is very different. Both in terms of quality of the content levels and monetary component of it.

Saying all above — I’m very pissed of when someone as fake and arrogant as +Trey Ratcliff takes responsibility to talk about industry as whole ! With bunch of muppets whom don’t make difference — where is +Thomas Hawk BTW ?

This is Hangout #16 (an older one that just got uploaded — we are on Hangout #19 already). This one is about the business of photography, and I invited various people that make money in photography in different ways. Enjoy!